Horse Nation Celebrates 100,000 Likes on Facebook

Hey, any excuse for a party.

Here at Horse Nation, we admittedly aren’t the greatest about remembering to celebrate our milestones. Our five-year anniversary whipped right past us faster than a loose horse (surprise, we’ve been around for five years!) and we published our 10,000th story with nary a fanfare (we’re now closer to 11,000, whoopsie).

Not again, we told ourselves. The next time something big comes around, we decided, it was time to mark the occasion. If nothing else, it gives us a good reason to day-drink.

This bright, beautiful Thursday morning found us over here at Horse Nation Headquarters eagerly watching as our Facebook likes rolled over to that beautiful, magical number of 100,000. Pop open that bubbly, people. Who cares if it’s not even 10:30.

Actual footage of Leslie Wylie this morning.

What kind of a number is 100,000? How many people is that?

• Almost twice the number of people who attended this year’s FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha, Nebraska
• About 20,000 more than the average annual attendance at Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
• A little less than the number of mint juleps sold at the Kentucky Derby each ear
• About one-fifth of the population of the state of Wyoming

Now, if you’re new to Horse Nation, you might be raising an eyebrow. Why are we talking so much about day-drinking and mint juleps? Why have there already been two GIFs and we’re only two hundred words in?

Longtime readers will corroborate: Horse Nation is a bit of a different animal in the world of horse publications. Like most horse people, we follow the beat of a different drummer and we’re not afraid to let our freak flag fly.

Guess which one we are.

Every couple of months we go through a phase where we tell ourselves, “Okay, enough with the goofy lists and odes to failed racehorses and catalogs of all the weird things only horse people do. It’s time to get serious. Real news only and let’s keep the social commentary to a minimum. We’re a respected sources of equine information, after all.”

It doesn’t last long. A week in and we’re back to sharing GIF collections poking fun at ourselves, posting videos of donkeys in sombreros swaying in rope hammocks as mariachi music plays in the background and creating yet another listicle that still makes people laugh because equestrians are literally the weirdest people on the face of the planet and we’re okay with it.

Look, we do cover real news too. For example, our most-read story to date is a hard-hitting news piece, full of real, verified, factual information. Dating back to November 29, 2014, who could forget Carla Lake’s “Man Gets Drunk, Sets Police Horses ‘Free’“? This is our journalism at its finest, people.

Our editorials are top-notch as well. Gifted with a staff of thoughtful, intelligent, well-spoken horse people, Horse Nation has always been a leader in thought-provoking content that brings real tears of emotion to the eyes of our readers (tears of laughter, we think, but we’re never totally sure). Lorraine Jackson’s “An Open Love Letter to Lani, the Weirdest Race Horse Ever” is just one example.

We’re not just screaming into the void of the internet, either, hoping that somewhere on some distant horse-loving planet someone will pick up on our signal. Horse Nation keeps it relevant, finding ways to connect what’s happening in our horse lives with important social events and movements in the Muggle world, reminding all of us who spend about 99% of our waking lives at the barn that it’s important to also come up for air every now and then. We can’t deny that Lady Gaga’s halftime show was one of those moments in human history that truly brought people together, and we saw our “9 Times the Lady Gaga Super Bowl Halftime Show Summed Up Equestrian Life” as a testament to the important work we do.

We lay it all out there every day to cover the stories that you need to know. It’s a tough job, but we’re glad to do it for you, our readers.

So, good citizens of Horse Nation, we on the editorial staff humbly thank you from the bottom of our horse-loving hearts for your loyal readership through thick and thin. We’re so proud to have earned your Facebook like and hereby promise to continue to bring you the stories that you need to know to make sure you’re living your equestrian life to the fullest.

100,000 fans. 10,000 stories. Five years in publication. What’s next for Horse Nation? We never really know, but we’re glad you’re along for the ride.